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I'm currently undergoing a project where I have to edit some material only available from DVDs. Basically I need to export a clip or two from the DVDs, and edit them in FCP for use on the net. The material I have are mostly feature films stored on the DVDs in 720x576 MPEG 1/2 Video (mpgv), however strangely FCP claims the frame size is 720x404.

The problem isn't ripping the DVD's. For that I have the right equipment. The problem is finding the right settings in FCP 6.0.6.

The videos are 16:9, so anamorphic seems to be the right choice in FCP as well. However when I set the FCP Sequence to CCIR 601 / DV PAL (5:4) to 16:9, the image is squished… Obviously that can't be right. While Modify > Conform to Sequence worked, it makes me uncertain that there is also a Scale to Sequence... Which one should I use, if any?

What kind of settings would be best to edit this correctly with minimum loss of quality in FCP? Advice about settings in Compressor or Adobe Media Encoder are also welcome.

This is going to depend on how your DVD ripping software works (if it does a trans-code). If it does not trans-code, then it is going to depend on how the DVD was originally encoded since the exact method of encoding can differ. I'm unfortunately less familiar with PAL formats as I'm an NTSC market guy. Do you know what the aspect ratio of the pixels being used is?
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AJ Henderson♦Apr 22 '13 at 13:48

Thank you for commenting :) It's 5:4. AFAIK the ripping software does not degrade the DVD video, but simply stitches them together into a larger MPEG file. In any case I have the option to simply "copy" the VOBs. Maybe that is the way to encode it back to DVD too?
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KebmanApr 23 '13 at 21:53